The confidence, the trust, the guarantee.

“This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.” (1 John 5:14)

This declaration from John touches many points as it regards our relationship with Christ Jesus.

I remember of several accounts of when Jesus our Lord walked the earth and where he was asked by many for a specific thing. Some asked him for healing, and he provided. Some sincerely asked him for clarity, and he provided. One person, Peter, asked him to allow him to walk on water, to do the naturally impossible, and he provided. Some didn’t know what to ask, like Martha and her sister Mary, and he still provided what he saw that they needed. And whenever someone had asked him to meddle in matters out of his will, out of his agenda, and he denied provisions.

I remember this one statement from Jesus to his disciples,

“Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete.” (John 16:24)

It’s almost like the disciples were hesitant at asking Jesus for any specific thing. They saw others maybe reaping, and others admonished and maybe decided to play it safe in hoping that whatever it is that they needed, Jesus would always provide it.

“This is the confidence we have in approaching God”…this part of the declaration addresses two folds of an enigma mankind is plagued with: “What do you ask God? Among the many things that either exist or can happen, what would you ask God for?”

And, “what is it that we can ask God and be sure above any doubt that we will welcome it, that we will receive it?”

“If we ask anything according to his will”…whatever we’re asking and want to be sure of receiving, it has to be something he agrees with already. God’s will, summarized by the words of the new covenant, or the fully developed covenant, implies these promises which were fulfilled in Christ Jesus

“This is the covenant I will make with them after that time, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds.” Then he adds: “Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more.” (Hebrews 10:16-17)

So, if we’re praying out of love, with a grateful heart giving thanks to God, giving God the credit through Christ, asking for mercy for our friends, for our family, and even for our enemies, God hears us.

“God hears us”, means he will accomplish it to help us grasp that He hears us. Asking God for something He can never run out of, His mercy, not just for ourselves but for our neighbors and those who are distant from us as well, that’s something we can simply say, “Consider it done!”

Jesus our Lord once said it in plain language, “If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.”

“If you believe” to mean “if you believe in my cause, you will definitely welcome whatever you ask for in prayer” In other words, whether we’re awake or asleep, God will bring to pass whatever we had asked with which he had long agreed with even before this world was brought into existence.

“Truly I tell you that if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ and has no doubt in his heart but believes that it will happen, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.” (Mark 11:23-24)

The confidence, the trust, the guarantee in approaching, in acknowledging His Presence and Existence, by prayer.